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Market research is when designers and businesses gather important information about the needs and preferences of people who might use their products.

They will use this to plan new products or make changes to existing ones.

By using market research, designers and businesses can make sure that the new product is as successful as it can be.

There are two main types of market research:

• Primary research - This involves gathering information that is new or has not been collected before. Examples include surveys, questionnaires and interviews.

• Secondary research - This involves gathering information that has already been collected by somebody else. Examples include gathering information from websites, books, existing reports and newspaper articles.

There are many different ways of doing market research. Each one has advantages and disadvantages.

Some of the methods that can be used include:

• Face to face surveys - A series of questions are written down and asked to a person while a researcher watches and records their answers.
• Online or paper-based surveys - A series of questions are written and given to people either on paper or online. Their answers are then sent back to the researchers.
• Looking at similar products - Lots of useful information, such as popular features, materials, styles and price ranges can be gathered by looking at a wide range of similar products.

Market research will tell us about the users and what they want from a product.

Market research could identify information such as:

• the target market
• who industry competitors are
• methods of promotion

Target market

The target market are the people who might want to buy or use a product.

The research might provide information about their age, gender, income preference and needs.

Competitors

Competitors are people or companies making similar products.

Research into competitors might look at how much similar products cost and how many are sold each year.

Promotion

Researching the target market and competitors should help a designer understand how a product could be successfully promoted through advertising or marketing.

Market research can help people make decisions about their planned products.

Using a pencil case as an example, market research could be used to find out:

• who will use it
• what people will put in it
• how people will carry it
• what the best size is
• what some of the most popular themes, styles and colours are

All of this information can help influence future product designs.

Take a look at these different pencil case designs.

Businesses frequently carry out market research to help them make better decisions. They want to make products which customers will buy, so their business can make money.

Most businesses carry out large-scale surveys and monitor other companies that sell similar products.

A business may want to make a change to a product, add a new product to its range or change the location it sells a products.

Before it does this, it may want to find out if current and future customers will react well to any changes. This is because changes can cost large amounts of money or be risky.

Take this true or false quiz to find out what you know about market research.